«

On Jul 26, 6:40 pm, "mark pullen" <fryerpul...@westnet.com.au> wrote:
> when I try To format my drive I get this message "format cannot run because
> the volume is in use by another process.format may run if this volume is
> dismounted first all opened handles to this volume would then be invalid
> would you like to force a dismount on this volume Y/N " I answer yes then i
> get this message "cannot lock the drive, the volume is still in use" why is
> this happening and how could i fix this problem. I am running winxp home
> edition with service pack 2 60gig hard drive 500 meg ram the drive is split
> into three partitions of 20g each I hope someone can shed some light, thanks
> mark.

hey man, you cant format the drive if you're using the drive. Like the
last guy said boot from a cd or usb drive format it from there. I've
tried many times to format my drive when logged on, but you cant.

On 27 Jul, 18:33, Natar...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Jul 26, 6:40 pm, "mark pullen" <fryerpul...@westnet.com.au> wrote:
>
> > when I try To format my drive I get this message "format cannot run because
> > the volume is in use by another process.format may run if this volume is
> > dismounted first all opened handles to this volume would then be invalid
> > would you like to force a dismount on this volume Y/N " I answer yes then i
> > get this message "cannot lock the drive, the volume is still in use" why is
> > this happening and how could i fix this problem. I am running winxp home
> > edition with service pack 2 60gig hard drive 500 meg ram the drive is split
> > into three partitions of 20g each I hope someone can shed some light, thanks
> > * * * * * * * * * * * *mark.
>
> hey man, you cant format the drive if you're using the drive. Like the
> last guy said boot from a cd or usb drive format it from there. I've
> tried many times to format my drive when logged on, but you cant.

what you are saying would solve it. (though I think booting from a
usb drive, well, it makes more sense to boot form a cd, unless you are
missing a cd drive or dos disc or winxp disc. To boot from a usb drive
you'd need a bootable partition on it)

But anyhow,

you and others are confusing the windows concept of drive letter, and
"C drive"/"D drive" , with a hard disk drive.

a drive letter/ C Drive/ D Drive/ E Drive, c:\ d:\ e:\ , , points to a
PARTITION.

A hard disk drive can have many partitions.

One formats a drive from another partition. That could be on another
physical hard disk drive, or it could be on the same hard disk drive.
Furthermore, as you suggest, besides running format from another
partition, one has to Not boot off of the partition you are
formatting. .Mostly one would boot from a partition with a format
facility on it, and format the partition you want to format.

A windows xp installation cd is a good thing to boot off of. People
tend to have one, or should, for fixing things. You don't have to have
winxp to do it.

A win98 installation cd might be a bit limited.. unuless it has a dos
option. Most people with win98 would use a floppy boot disk, though
there are cdrom bootable dos discs you can make. And run the format
command off of them. You don't have to have win98 "proper" to do it.
Just a win98 boot disk will do it.


The golden rule, which most of you don't get.


YOU FORMAT PARTITIONS NOT DRIVES

C IS A PARTITION, D IS A PARTITION, E IS A PARTITION,

whether they are patitions on the same drive or a different drive is
another matter.

There are expressions Windows uses, to refer to these partitions,
Drive Letter,
"C Drive"..."E drive".... But they don't refer to the whole drive.
Just a partition of one drive.
C Drive and D Drive , E drive and F drive, whatever, could be on the
same physical hard drive.

I repeat

YOU FORMAT PARTITIONS NOT DRIVES

You are all confusing the two, and all suggesting that you have to be
on a different hard disk drive or on a cdrom drive - and booting off
it. And that would solve it, but it's not fully tru. You can be on
the same hard disk drive too, but a different partition and booting
off the/a differnet partition. . .

On Jul 29, 7:14 am, "jameshanle...@yahoo.co.uk"
<jameshanle...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> On 27 Jul, 18:33, Natar...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > On Jul 26, 6:40 pm, "mark pullen" <fryerpul...@westnet.com.au> wrote:
>
> > > when I try To format my drive I get this message "format cannot run because
> > > the volume is in use by another process.format may run if this volume is
> > > dismounted first all opened handles to this volume would then be invalid
> > > would you like to force a dismount on this volume Y/N " I answer yes then i
> > > get this message "cannot lock the drive, the volume is still in use" why is
> > > this happening and how could i fix this problem. I am running winxp home
> > > edition with service pack 2 60gig hard drive 500 meg ram the drive is split
> > > into three partitions of 20g each I hope someone can shed some light, thanks
> > > mark.
>
> > hey man, you cant format the drive if you're using the drive. Like the
> > last guy said boot from a cd or usb drive format it from there. I've
> > tried many times to format my drive when logged on, but you cant.
>
> what you are saying would solve it. (though I think booting from a
> usb drive, well, it makes more sense to boot form a cd, unless you are
> missing a cd drive or dos disc or winxp disc. To boot from a usb drive
> you'd need a bootable partition on it)
>
> But anyhow,
>
> you and others are confusing the windows concept of drive letter, and
> "C drive"/"D drive" , with a hard disk drive.
>
> a drive letter/ C Drive/ D Drive/ E Drive, c:\ d:\ e:\ , , points to a
> PARTITION.
>
> A hard disk drive can have many partitions.
>
> One formats a drive from another partition. That could be on another
> physical hard disk drive, or it could be on the same hard disk drive.
> Furthermore, as you suggest, besides running format from another
> partition, one has to Not boot off of the partition you are
> formatting. .Mostly one would boot from a partition with a format
> facility on it, and format the partition you want to format.
>
> A windows xp installation cd is a good thing to boot off of. People
> tend to have one, or should, for fixing things. You don't have to have
> winxp to do it.
>
> A win98 installation cd might be a bit limited.. unuless it has a dos
> option. Most people with win98 would use a floppy boot disk, though
> there are cdrom bootable dos discs you can make. And run the format
> command off of them. You don't have to have win98 "proper" to do it.
> Just a win98 boot disk will do it.
>
> The golden rule, which most of you don't get.
>
> YOU FORMAT PARTITIONS NOT DRIVES
>
> C IS A PARTITION, D IS A PARTITION, E IS A PARTITION,
>
> whether they are patitions on the same drive or a different drive is
> another matter.
>
> There are expressions Windows uses, to refer to these partitions,
> Drive Letter,
> "C Drive"..."E drive".... But they don't refer to the whole drive.
> Just a partition of one drive.
> C Drive and D Drive , E drive and F drive, whatever, could be on the
> same physical hard drive.
>
> I repeat
>
> YOU FORMAT PARTITIONS NOT DRIVES
>
> You are all confusing the two, and all suggesting that you have to be
> on a different hard disk drive or on a cdrom drive - and booting off
> it. And that would solve it, but it's not fully tru. You can be on
> the same hard disk drive too, but a different partition and booting
> off the/a differnet partition. . .


Yeah i know that. I admit I didnt fully read his question to the end.
I kinda stopped in the middle. I didnt realize he had 3 partitions
already, and was trying to partition a different one. I thought he
only had the one partition that he was using and was trying to format
that while he was on that partition. But as long as you're formatting
a different partition then it should work. But I stand by what I said
to use the cd-rom to format it. Depending on what file system you
want, that determines the boot disc. ---example, NTFS use windows XP
disc, ext2 or ext3, use Linux boot disc, or whatevea. Doing it from
the command is kool but is nothing better than being able to point and
click on a partition, and click format, as apposed to typing commands
and switches.

What file system are you installing on that partition??

<> wrote in message
news:7ba15e99-233c-41a8-85fa-...
On 27 Jul, 18:33, Natar...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Jul 26, 6:40 pm, "mark pullen" <fryerpul...@westnet.com.au> wrote:
>
> > when I try To format my drive I get this message "format cannot run
> > because
> > the volume is in use by another process.format may run if this volume is
> > dismounted first all opened handles to this volume would then be invalid
> > would you like to force a dismount on this volume Y/N " I answer yes
> > then i
> > get this message "cannot lock the drive, the volume is still in use" why
> > is
> > this happening and how could i fix this problem. I am running winxp home
> > edition with service pack 2 60gig hard drive 500 meg ram the drive is
> > split
> > into three partitions of 20g each I hope someone can shed some light,
> > thanks
> > mark.
>
> hey man, you cant format the drive if you're using the drive. Like the
> last guy said boot from a cd or usb drive format it from there. I've
> tried many times to format my drive when logged on, but you cant.

what you are saying would solve it. (though I think booting from a
usb drive, well, it makes more sense to boot form a cd, unless you are
missing a cd drive or dos disc or winxp disc. To boot from a usb drive
you'd need a bootable partition on it)

But anyhow,

you and others are confusing the windows concept of drive letter, and
"C drive"/"D drive" , with a hard disk drive.

a drive letter/ C Drive/ D Drive/ E Drive, c:\ d:\ e:\ , , points to a
PARTITION.

A hard disk drive can have many partitions.

One formats a drive from another partition. That could be on another
physical hard disk drive, or it could be on the same hard disk drive.
Furthermore, as you suggest, besides running format from another
partition, one has to Not boot off of the partition you are
formatting. .Mostly one would boot from a partition with a format
facility on it, and format the partition you want to format.

A windows xp installation cd is a good thing to boot off of. People
tend to have one, or should, for fixing things. You don't have to have
winxp to do it.

A win98 installation cd might be a bit limited.. unuless it has a dos
option. Most people with win98 would use a floppy boot disk, though
there are cdrom bootable dos discs you can make. And run the format
command off of them. You don't have to have win98 "proper" to do it.
Just a win98 boot disk will do it.


The golden rule, which most of you don't get.


YOU FORMAT PARTITIONS NOT DRIVES

C IS A PARTITION, D IS A PARTITION, E IS A PARTITION,

whether they are patitions on the same drive or a different drive is
another matter.

There are expressions Windows uses, to refer to these partitions,
Drive Letter,
"C Drive"..."E drive".... But they don't refer to the whole drive.
Just a partition of one drive.
C Drive and D Drive , E drive and F drive, whatever, could be on the
same physical hard drive.

I repeat

YOU FORMAT PARTITIONS NOT DRIVES

You are all confusing the two, and all suggesting that you have to be
on a different hard disk drive or on a cdrom drive - and booting off
it. And that would solve it, but it's not fully tru. You can be on
the same hard disk drive too, but a different partition and booting
off the/a differnet partition. . .



<JS>
I'll buy the idea that C and D are partitions of the same physical drive,
and E could be a partition, in theory. As a practical matter, E is more
often a secondary drive, such as a CD or DVD. But the distinction is not
really relevent, I suppose. There could be any number of partitions on a
very large capacity hard drive. (The OP hasn't got a "very large capacity
hard drive" though, I recall him reporting a 60G drive with 3 partitions set
to 20G each.)

I have to wonder if removing a partition on a physical drive is possible
when the physical drive is the one that has been booted to. If I have a
drive with C, D, and E partitions, and I'm booted to C. I cannot remove the
partition from E because the space needs to go somewhere, but I'm booted to
where the space will be going. I suppose in theory (I've never tried) I
could reformat E while booted to C, but I did not get the impression that
the OP was wanting to do this. I thought he had three partitions, and he
wanted to remove the partitions and make one large drive. If this is the
case, he could not do what he wants while booted to a partition on the drive
he wants to format.

He needs to boot to his XP CD, and do a full install, then select the
partition options during install.

</JS>

On Jul 29, 3:56*pm, Natar...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Jul 29, 7:14 am, "jameshanle...@yahoo.co.uk"
>
<snip>
> > YOU *FORMAT PARTITIONS NOT DRIVES
> > You are all confusing the two, and all suggesting that you have to be
> > on a different hard disk drive or on a cdrom drive - and booting off
> > it. And that would solve it, but it's *not fully tru. You can be on
> > the same hard disk drive too, but a different partition and booting
> > off the/a differnet partition. . * *.
>
> Yeah i know that.

Then you're a wanker

> I admit I didnt fully read his question to the end.
> I kinda stopped in the middle.

I didn't read his whole question either, but I wouldn't have written
the technically garbage things that you and others wrote. Whether you
read his whole question or not. ONE FORMATS A PARTITION, NOT A DRIVE.

Your writing even confirmed the misconception..

I wasn't planning on answering him and didn't anyway. Because It's
clearly a simple question, easily googlable, and one that you would
all have jumped to answer anyway, one that any techie knows like the
back of his hand, and although technically a bit silly, you gave him
good solutions, as I expected. I just scanned through the responses.


But to say that you only read through part of his question.
IRRELEVANT..


And to say that you knew anyway that you format a partition not a
drive. And you still wrote what you did.

Well, that's just pathetic. It makes you a tosser.

And to say you didn't know he had 3 partitions? (i.e. you mean you
thought he only had one). IRRELEVANT.

yes, I know what you mean.. but it makes you an illogical tosser.


<snip>

On Jul 29, 1:22 pm, "jameshanle...@yahoo.co.uk"
<jameshanle...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> On Jul 29, 3:56 pm, Natar...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > On Jul 29, 7:14 am, "jameshanle...@yahoo.co.uk"
>
> <snip>
> > > YOU FORMAT PARTITIONS NOT DRIVES
> > > You are all confusing the two, and all suggesting that you have to be
> > > on a different hard disk drive or on a cdrom drive - and booting off
> > > it. And that would solve it, but it's not fully tru. You can be on
> > > the same hard disk drive too, but a different partition and booting
> > > off the/a differnet partition. . .
>
> > Yeah i know that.
>
> Then you're a wanker
>
> > I admit I didnt fully read his question to the end.
> > I kinda stopped in the middle.
>
> I didn't read his whole question either, but I wouldn't have written
> the technically garbage things that you and others wrote. Whether you
> read his whole question or not. ONE FORMATS A PARTITION, NOT A DRIVE.
>
> Your writing even confirmed the misconception..
>
> I wasn't planning on answering him and didn't anyway. Because It's
> clearly a simple question, easily googlable, and one that you would
> all have jumped to answer anyway, one that any techie knows like the
> back of his hand, and although technically a bit silly, you gave him
> good solutions, as I expected. I just scanned through the responses.
>
> But to say that you only read through part of his question.
> IRRELEVANT..
>
> And to say that you knew anyway that you format a partition not a
> drive. And you still wrote what you did.
>
> Well, that's just pathetic. It makes you a tosser.
>
> And to say you didn't know he had 3 partitions? (i.e. you mean you
> thought he only had one). IRRELEVANT.
>
> yes, I know what you mean.. but it makes you an illogical tosser.
>
> <snip>

lol. hahaha kalm down please. You make it seem like you're a computer
genius which I know you're not. Ok I said drive instead of partition.
Kill me. That really didn't take away from my solution. And whether he
has 1, 2, or 3 partitions is relevant to his question. Having only 1
partition means you cant partition it from that partition. Which is
what I thought he was doing. Since he has 3 partitions he can format
the other 2 but not the one hes booted on. Please tell me how that was
not relevant to his question. I did admit to missing that piece of
info. The fact that I said drive instead of partitioned is irrelevant.
My solution will still work will it not?

On 29 Jul, 20:28, Natar...@gmail.com wrote:
<snip>
> lol. hahaha kalm down please. You make it seem like you're a computer
> genius which I know you're not.

depends who you ask. But those people would say you were a computer
genius too.

I wouldn't say I know more than you.. You may well know alot more than
me.

But you very clearly said things that were illogical, by saying and
repeating a faulty pseudo-technical expression that was innaccurate
and misleading.

> Ok I said drive instead of partition.
> Kill me. That really didn't take away from my solution. And whether he
> has 1, 2, or 3 partitions is relevant to his question. Having only 1
> partition means you cant partition it from that partition. Which is
> what I thought he was doing. Since he has 3 partitions he can format
> the other 2 but not the one hes booted on. Please tell me how that was
> not relevant to his question. I did admit to missing that piece of
> info. The fact that I said drive instead of partitioned is irrelevant.
> My solution will still work will it not?-


Of course, it will work.

You obviously didn't understand what I wrote.

Your solution was/is relevant to his problem. And it solves it.

My criticism of what you said, holds true regardless of how many
partitions the OP has. That is why your excuse that you hadn't read
all of what the OP wrote, is irrelevant. I hadn't read it either.
It's irrelevant to the mistake you made. In your case it was worse
than a mistake. You knowingly said things that were technically wrong.

ps: Your spelling is wrong too. Often putting a K when it should be a
C.

On Jul 30, 11:23 am, "jameshanle...@yahoo.co.uk"
<jameshanle...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> On 29 Jul, 20:28, Natar...@gmail.com wrote:
> <snip>
>
> > lol. hahaha kalm down please. You make it seem like you're a computer
> > genius which I know you're not.
>
> depends who you ask. But those people would say you were a computer
> genius too.
>
> I wouldn't say I know more than you.. You may well know alot more than
> me.
>
> But you very clearly said things that were illogical, by saying and
> repeating a faulty pseudo-technical expression that was innaccurate
> and misleading.
>
> > Ok I said drive instead of partition.
> > Kill me. That really didn't take away from my solution. And whether he
> > has 1, 2, or 3 partitions is relevant to his question. Having only 1
> > partition means you cant partition it from that partition. Which is
> > what I thought he was doing. Since he has 3 partitions he can format
> > the other 2 but not the one hes booted on. Please tell me how that was
> > not relevant to his question. I did admit to missing that piece of
> > info. The fact that I said drive instead of partitioned is irrelevant.
> > My solution will still work will it not?-
>
> Of course, it will work.
>
> You obviously didn't understand what I wrote.
>
> Your solution was/is relevant to his problem. And it solves it.
>
> My criticism of what you said, holds true regardless of how many
> partitions the OP has. That is why your excuse that you hadn't read
> all of what the OP wrote, is irrelevant. I hadn't read it either.
> It's irrelevant to the mistake you made. In your case it was worse
> than a mistake. You knowingly said things that were technically wrong.
>
> ps: Your spelling is wrong too. Often putting a K when it should be a
> C.

hahaha, I know, I spell c-words with a K all the time. My online
gaming name is Ser'Ver Kode as apposed to Code. But as long as the
asker got correct solutions is really all that matters right? If my
text was "inaccurate or misleading" it was done unintentionally, and
I'm sorry to the people who were mislead by it. All I was trying to do
was help someone with something that I had problems with some time
ago.

On Jul 30, 8:58*pm, Natar...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Jul 30, 11:23 am, "jameshanle...@yahoo.co.uk"
>
>
>
>
>
> <jameshanle...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> > On 29 Jul, 20:28, Natar...@gmail.com wrote:
> > <snip>
>
> > > lol. hahaha kalm down please. You make it seem like you're a computer
> > > genius which I know you're not.
>
> > depends who you ask. But those people would say you were a computer
> > genius too.
>
> > I wouldn't say I know more than you.. You may well know alot more than
> > me.
>
> > But you very clearly said things that were illogical, by saying and
> > repeating a faulty pseudo-technical expression that was innaccurate
> > and misleading.
>
> > > Ok I said drive instead of partition.
> > > Kill me. That really didn't take away from my solution. And whether he
> > > has 1, 2, or 3 partitions is relevant to his question. Having only 1
> > > partition means you cant partition it from that partition. Which is
> > > what I thought he was doing. Since he has 3 partitions he can format
> > > the other 2 but not the one hes booted on. Please tell me how that was
> > > not relevant to his question. I did admit to missing that piece of
> > > info. The fact that I said drive instead of partitioned is irrelevant..
> > > My solution will still work will it not?-
>
> > Of course, it will work.
>
> > You obviously didn't understand what I wrote.
>
> > Your solution was/is relevant to his problem. And it solves it.
>
> > My criticism of what you said, holds true regardless of how many
> > partitions the OP has. *That is why your excuse that you hadn't read
> > all of what the OP wrote, is irrelevant. *I hadn't read it either.
> > It's irrelevant to the mistake you made. In your case it was worse
> > than a mistake. You knowingly said things that were technically wrong.
>
> > ps: Your spelling is wrong too. Often putting a K when it should be a
> > C.
>
> hahaha, I know, I spell c-words with a K all the time. My online
> gaming name is Ser'Ver Kode as apposed to Code. But as long as the
> asker got correct solutions is really all that matters right? If my
> text was "inaccurate or misleading" it was done unintentionally, and
> I'm sorry to the people who were mislead by it. All I was trying to do
> was help someone with something that I had problems with some time
> ago.-

it does matter that a computer newsgroup has a technical community
that can pool their knowledge together. giving alternative solutions
to problems.. This information can then be searched..

It's far more than just techies and ignoramouses asking questions and
getting help and getting their problem solved.
They should get their problem solved. But it is solved by a technical
community which gains alot of knowledge from the shared knowledge of
the technical community.

If somebody provides information that works but is technically
incorrect, then it's damaging , and hopefully somebody corrects
it.

(The following is not the situation here, but, there may be a problem
of somebody continuing to post garbage, and it's not feasible to keep
replying and correcting them. But hopefully with a few replies
pointing it out and that they're an idiot, serious people will know
from their searches, and they won't take them seriously). I have seen
extreme cases where somebody has caused so much damage, that
justifiably, somebody else compiled a list of their crimes. Made a
post of it, and just repied to their posts pointing out that thread.
So people would be warned).

On Jul 30, 1:43 pm, "jameshanle...@yahoo.co.uk"
<jameshanle...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> On Jul 30, 8:58 pm, Natar...@gmail.com wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Jul 30, 11:23 am, "jameshanle...@yahoo.co.uk"
>
> > <jameshanle...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> > > On 29 Jul, 20:28, Natar...@gmail.com wrote:
> > > <snip>
>
> > > > lol. hahaha kalm down please. You make it seem like you're a computer
> > > > genius which I know you're not.
>
> > > depends who you ask. But those people would say you were a computer
> > > genius too.
>
> > > I wouldn't say I know more than you.. You may well know alot more than
> > > me.
>
> > > But you very clearly said things that were illogical, by saying and
> > > repeating a faulty pseudo-technical expression that was innaccurate
> > > and misleading.
>
> > > > Ok I said drive instead of partition.
> > > > Kill me. That really didn't take away from my solution. And whether he
> > > > has 1, 2, or 3 partitions is relevant to his question. Having only 1
> > > > partition means you cant partition it from that partition. Which is
> > > > what I thought he was doing. Since he has 3 partitions he can format
> > > > the other 2 but not the one hes booted on. Please tell me how that was
> > > > not relevant to his question. I did admit to missing that piece of
> > > > info. The fact that I said drive instead of partitioned is irrelevant.
> > > > My solution will still work will it not?-
>
> > > Of course, it will work.
>
> > > You obviously didn't understand what I wrote.
>
> > > Your solution was/is relevant to his problem. And it solves it.
>
> > > My criticism of what you said, holds true regardless of how many
> > > partitions the OP has. That is why your excuse that you hadn't read
> > > all of what the OP wrote, is irrelevant. I hadn't read it either.
> > > It's irrelevant to the mistake you made. In your case it was worse
> > > than a mistake. You knowingly said things that were technically wrong.
>
> > > ps: Your spelling is wrong too. Often putting a K when it should be a
> > > C.
>
> > hahaha, I know, I spell c-words with a K all the time. My online
> > gaming name is Ser'Ver Kode as apposed to Code. But as long as the
> > asker got correct solutions is really all that matters right? If my
> > text was "inaccurate or misleading" it was done unintentionally, and
> > I'm sorry to the people who were mislead by it. All I was trying to do
> > was help someone with something that I had problems with some time
> > ago.-
>
> it does matter that a computer newsgroup has a technical community
> that can pool their knowledge together. giving alternative solutions
> to problems.. This information can then be searched..
>
> It's far more than just techies and ignoramouses asking questions and
> getting help and getting their problem solved.
> They should get their problem solved. But it is solved by a technical
> community which gains alot of knowledge from the shared knowledge of
> the technical community.
>
> If somebody provides information that works but is technically
> incorrect, then it's damaging , and hopefully somebody corrects
> it.
>
> (The following is not the situation here, but, there may be a problem
> of somebody continuing to post garbage, and it's not feasible to keep
> replying and correcting them. But hopefully with a few replies
> pointing it out and that they're an idiot, serious people will know
> from their searches, and they won't take them seriously). I have seen
> extreme cases where somebody has caused so much damage, that
> justifiably, somebody else compiled a list of their crimes. Made a
> post of it, and just repied to their posts pointing out that thread.
> So people would be warned).

"If somebody provides information that works but is technically
incorrect, then it's damaging , and hopefully somebody corrects
it."

-- I see what you are saying. Thanks for correcting me then.